"Jack Vance - The Moon Moth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Vance Jack)

of the forest, lay close at hand if he wanted to stretch his legs.
Toby and Rex occupied a pair of cubicles forward; This-sell had the after-cabins to himself. From time to time he
toyed with the idea of a third slave, possibly a young female, to contribute an element of charm and gaiety to the
m├йnage, but Kershaul advised against the step, fearing that the intensity of Thissell's concentration might somehow
be di-minished. Thissell acquiesced and devoted himself to the study of the six instruments.
The days passed quickly. Thissell never became bored with the pageantry of dawn and sunset; the white clouds
and blue sea of noon; the night sky blazing with the twenty-nine stars of Cluster SI 1-715. The weekly trip to Fan
broke the tedium: Toby and Rex foraged for food; Thissell visited the luxurious houseboat of Mathew Kershaul for
instruction and advice. Then, three months after Thissell's arrival, came the message completely disorganizing the
routine: Haxo Angmark, assassin, agent provocateur, ruthless and crafty criminal, had come to Sirene. Effective
detention and incar-ceration of this man! read the orders. Attention! Haxo Angmark superlatively dangerous. Kill
without hesitation!
Thissell was not in the best of condition. He trotted fifty yards until his breath came in gasps, then walked:
through low hills crowned with white bamboo and black tree-ferns; across meadows yellow with grass-nuts; through
orchards and wild vineyards. Twenty minutes passed, twenty-five minutes passedтАФtwenty-five minutes! With a
heavy sensa-tion in his stomach Thissell knew that he was too late. Haxo Angmark had landed, and might be
traversing this very road toward Fan. But along the way Thissell met only four per-sons: a boy-child in a mock-fierce
Alk Islander mask; two young women wearing the Red Bird and the Green Bird; a man masked as a Forest Goblin.
Coming upon the man, Thissell stopped short. Could this be Angmark?
Thissell essayed a stratagem. He went boldly to the man, stared into the hideous mask. "Angmark," he called in
the language of the Home Planets, "you are under arrest!"
The Forest Goblin stared uncomprehendingly, then started forward along the track.
Thissell put himself in the way. He reached for his ganga, then recalling the hostler's reaction, instead struck a
chord on the zachinko. "You travel the road from the spaceport," he sang. "What have you seen there?"
The Forest Goblin grasped his hand-bugle, an instrument used to deride opponents on the field of battle, to
summon animals or occasionally to evince a rough and ready truculence. "Where I travel and what I see are the
concern solely of myself. Stand back or I walk upon your face." He marched forward, and had not Thissell leaped
aside the Forest Goblin might well have made good his threat.
Thissell stood gazing after the retreating back. Angmark? Not likely, with so sure a touch on the hand-bugle.
Thissell hesitated, then turned and continued on his way.
Arriving at the spaceport, he went directly to the office. The heavy door stood ajar; as Thissell approached, a
man appeared in the doorway. He wore a mask of dull green scales, mica plates, blue-lacquered wood and black
quillsтАФ the Tarn Bird.
"Ser Rolver," Thissell called out anxiously, "who came down from the Carina Cruzeiro?"
Rolver studied Thissell a long moment. "Why do you ask?"
 "Why do I ask?" demanded Thissell. "You must have seen the spacegram I received from Castel Cromartin!"
"Oh, yes," said Rolver. "Of course. Naturally."
"It was delivered only half an hour ago," said Thissell bitterly. "I rushed out as fast as I could. Where is
Angmark?"
"In Fan, I assume," said Rolver.
Thissell cursed softly. "Why didn't you hold him up, delay him in some way?"
Rolver shrugged. "I had neither authority, inclination nor the capability to stop him."
Thissell fought back his annoyance. In a voice of studied calm he said, "On the way I passed a man in rather a
ghastly maskтАФsaucer eyes, red wattles."
"A Forest Goblin," said Rolver. "Angmark brought the mask with him."
"But he played the hand-bugle," Thissell protested. "How could AngmarkтАФ"
"He's well acquainted with Sirene; he spent five years here in Fan."
Thissell grunted in annoyance. "Cromartin made no men-tion of this."
"It's common knowledge," said Rolver with a shrug. "He was Commercial Representative before Welibus took
over."